A Fine Romance
by nikkiluvshp
Summary: As he walks out the door, he knows that he'll be back tomorrow with a new made up illness and a love struck expression on his face. How pathetic. AU
1. Chapter 1

**A/N : So, this is a new kind of a story for me. I was inspired by a Billie Holiday song called (wouldn't you know it) "A Fine Romance". It's set in the 1950's and the characters are going to be OOC at times because their backgrounds are different than the one in THG. Peeta's mom is still abusive and Katniss and Gale still have lost their fathers. It might be continued if people request it to be, but if not it will stay a one-shot. Enjoy!**

It was silly. He shouldn't be here. But he couldn't help himself, never could. Not around her.

"Hey there, Mr. Mellark. Back so soon?" He could see the confusion in her soft grey eyes, and his resolve melted.

"Uh, I uh, I've been coughing a lot lately, " he faked a cough for good measure. "And I was wondering if you might have something for it."

He came by her store at least once a day with a new illness. She either thought he was on death's door or just plain crazy. He was sure she was leaning towards the latter.

"I'm sure we do. Hold on for a moment." She turned away and went into the back store room. He released a sigh of frustration and then, self-deprecatingly, began to mutter "Idiot!" under his breath. Prim watched him with pity.

"Ask her out to the cinema." His head snapped up and he flushed at the realization he wasn't alone.

"She's been wanting to see the new Fred Astaire film for ages." The young girl bit into her apple and watched Peeta intently.

"She'd never say yes to me." Being told he was not better than the scum under his mother's shoes as a child did not do Peeta's self-esteem any favors. His shoulders slumped and his eyes were downcast in the perfect picture of defeat. Prim shook her head and took another bite of her apple.

"With all due respect, Mr. Mellark, try. Don't be so sure that my sister is the beast you seem to think her to be." His eyes widened indignantly. He did think that Katniss was a beast. Quite the opposite, really, he thought she was wonderful. He knew her tough exterior was a front to scare off suitors. In fact, he had become such a casual customer that Katniss regarded him warmly; unlike the thin smiles she gave her other customers, one in particular, Gale Hawthorne. He was another suitor who was not as subtle in his advances as Peeta and from what Peeta had seen, Katniss did not appreciate it one bit.

He realized that he had paused for too long and before he could tell Prim he certainly did not think that Katniss a beast, the woman in question strode out of the store room with a small bottle in her hand. Prim winked at him and mouthed "good luck" before going up up the steps she had been standing on.

"Sorry I took so long, Mr. Mellark. My mother, she disorganized everything back there and it's been a bit hard to find things." He mumbled that was quite all right and fumbled with loose piece of fabric on his shirt. This was it, he was going to throw caution into the wind and ask her out. He wished he had brought some flowers along to help sway her. He opened his mouth and prepared to ask her when-

"Why Misses Everdeen, you get lovelier and lovelier everyday!" Peeta's jaw dropped. Of course. Of course _he_ would come along and ruin everything. He turned to see Gale Hawthorne, tall and handsome as ever, with a wide smirk on his face. To his dismay, it seemed Katniss was blushing and hiding a smile of her own.

"Oh hush, Gale Hawthorne, before I tell your mother about you hanging 'round the Hob on Friday nights." Her smile was wide and her eyes sparkled fondly.

"Ah Catnip, you wouldn't tell on little ole me." He caught sight of Peeta, and his expression tightened. "Oh, hello there, Mr. Mellark." Peeta nodded his head in greeting to Gale, his mind still reeling.

"Oh, Mr. Mellark, I put this one on your tab. Have a pleasant evening." She hands him a white bag that holds his medicine and when he takes it from her, his fingers brush against hers. He thinks he sees stars. He nods his goodbyes to the both of them. As he walks out the door, he knows that he'll be back tomorrow with a new made up illness and a love struck expression on his face. How pathetic.

A fine romance indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

The Hob was a dim and smoky place that seemed to feature only Negro singers and musicians. Peeta felt terribly out of place. He didn't have a problem with colored folk, not by a long shot; he just knew he stood out like a sore thumb with his blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes. He was garnering a lot of attention and not all of it was friendly curiosity. Yet he wouldn't leave. Not until he got to see Katniss. _If she's even here_, his mind chided him.

The lengths he went for this girl was ridiculous. His mother commented on it just the other day in the nicest way she knew how. _"Peeta, your obsession with the Everdeen girl is just silly. You do know she hangs around that awful colored club with that filthy friend of hers? Her mother was a whore and so is she, Peeta. It'd be best for everyone if you'd just give up."_

Except it wouldn't be what was best for him. He didn't think he could leave Katniss alone even if he wanted to. She had captivated him since the moment he met her, and he wasn't willing to let that go. Whatever "that" was.

"Mellark, what the hell are you doing here?" Peeta almost jumped in shock but stopped himself. He couldn't look weak in front of Gale. He refused to. He squared his shoulders and turned around to look Gale in the eyes,

"I heard there was good music here. I decided to check it out." He shrugged nonchalantly, and tried to keep his expression casual. Gale narrowed his eyes.

"So I guess it has nothing to do with Katniss performing tonight." Peeta's heart almost shot of his chest. Katniss? Performing? That was better than anything he could have ever imagined. He had never heard her sing before but he was sure her voice was just as lovely as the rest of her. He contorted his expression to one of mild interest. He couldn't let Gale know just how much he was infatuated with Katniss.

"Oh, I wasn't aware that she was. But now that I know," his eyes sparkled deviously," I'll be looking forward to it." The lights in the dark club seemed to completely go out at this point and a spotlight shone on the stage. All eyes were drawn to the shapely figure standing on the stage. The woman was dressed in all red and her dress sparkled in a way that was reminiscent of fire crackling. Her red lips were slightly lifted in a knowing smile but her eyes were shut tight, as if to block out the crowd.

Peeta's jaw must've hit the floor. The whole club was silent and waited with bated breath for the stunning woman to sing her song. She was dressed to kill and it came to the surprise of everyone when the band did not begin to play some fast, sexy number. Quite to contrary, the song was slow and mournful and struck a chord with everyone in the room. Her voice was haunting and steady, as she began to poetically describe a lynching.

_Southern trees bear strange fruit  
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root  
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze  
Strange fruit hanging from the popular trees_

Her voice entranced him. He found his own eyes drifting shut. This is, he was sure, what love felt like. He couldn't recall ever feeling an emotion this powerful. Ever. He knew then, for sure, that he would never give up on Katniss Everdeen. Even if it meant faking illnesses for the rest of his life, he really didn't think he'd mind. As long as it was Katniss, always.

"She's going to get herself killed." Peeta's eyes snapped open again, forgetting his unfortunate company. He looked over at the other man but Gale's eyes were locked on her. His expression was one of anger. Peeta couldn't understand how any person could feel anything except peace while listening to the angel. "I told her not sing this. Not tonight."

He didn't know if Gale was just thinking aloud or talking to him, but he felt compelled to respond.

"Why? Why not today?" Gale stared at him for a moment.

"There was an anonymous tip. The Hob might get raided tonight. If those racist bastards we call Peace Keepers hear her, they'll be out for her head." Peeta looked back up Katniss who was on the last few notes of her song.

_Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh  
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh  
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck  
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck_

The lights went off again before she was finished and everyone looked around in confusion. It was clear that this was not meant to happen. And then it happened.

A shot rang out. A woman cried out in the dark. Silence, deadlier than any other Peeta had ever experienced, ensued.

And then, as a classic cliché would say, all hell broke loose.

**A/N: So, I decided that I didn't want my story to be as light and fluffy as the first chapter was. I want my story to have a bigger plot than "How Katniss and Peeta get together in the 50's!" So I'm going to involve Katniss and Peeta in the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. The song Katniss sings is another Billie Holliday song called "Strange Fruit". I already have this story mapped out in my head so I should update again in a week or so. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Constructive criticism is always welcome.**


	3. Chapter 3

He's running, but the darkness makes it impossible to go into a sure direction. It doesn't help that people are starting to turn over tables. More gunshots ring out.

"Stop! STOP!" He's screaming now, but he isn't the only one. He muses, distractedly, that they all sound like the young children that like to play tag in the meadow near the bakery. Except this is so much more serious. He hears something make a _whooshing _sound and looks behind him. An obscenity finds its way out of his lips when he sees it.

Fire. Fire unlike any fire he had ever seen before. And the way the flames flicker reminds him of why he was here in the first place. _Katniss._

He had completely forgotten her in his panic to leave the club. It's too dark and too many people and no matter how loud he screams her name, he receives no answer. A piece of wood falls from the ceiling and pins him. He's trapped and pathetic because all he can think about is Katniss and the small freckle above her mouth and how it seems to wink at him when she smiles. The piece of wood leaves a hole in the ceiling that he can see the sky from. The stars twinkle down at him and whisper a lullaby. He's never been much of a believer but he tries to pray to God. He's sure that Heis not listening. Everything fades to darkness, eventually...

"I want answers, Aurelius!" is the first thing he hears when he comes to. He's in the hospital but he can't understand why. "Ten negroes and two white men died last night. At this rate we'll have uprising for sure."

The doctor, who Peeta assumed was Aurelius, responded. "Oh, come now Abernanthy. You can't seriously believe that the baker's son had anything to do with what happened last night. Besides, the Peacekeepers said they suspect that the oven exploded."

"Oh God, Aurelius, have you seen the bodies? There are clearly bullet wounds in three of them. This was no fucking accident." Peeta tried to stay still and silent so as not to alert the two arguing men that he was awake but as he attempted to stretch, he realized he was missing something. Something important. His mouth went dry.

"Where's my leg?" The two bickering men looked over at him and the doctor tried to reassure Peeta with a small, sad smile.

"Now Mr. Mellark, I'm going to need you to stay calm." Peeta tried but it felt like he couldn't breathe. His leg. Where was his leg? He began to hyperventilate.

"Where is my leg? Tell me, God damn you. WHERE IS MY LEG?" His eyes were crazed and wide. The man, Abernanthy the doctor had called him, looked at him with thinly veiled disgust.

"It's gone, sweetheart." Peeta didn't understand why this grown man called him sweetheart or, more importantly, what he meant when he said that Peeta's leg was gone. He was in denial.

"Haymitch! I will not have you coming in here upsetting my patients. I'll let you talk to him in a minute after I talk to him. Now go wait outside." The man who was apparently also called Haymitch shuffled out of the room mumbling under his breath. The doctor nodded after the man and inhaled deeply, as if he were preparing himself. It made Peeta panic even more than he already was. He couldn't accept what he knew this man was going to tell him. Tears ran freely down his face as he tried to shake the doctor's voice out his head. After several attempts at an introduction and explanation, the doctor was quite frustrated.

"Now Peeta, I understand this is hard to accept, but we had to amputate your leg. Really, you were quite lucky to even survive." Peeta blinked and tried to accept what the doctor was saying but it was hard. He had never paid much attention to his leg (he supposed most didn't) but now, he honestly couldn't imagine how he'd get through life without it.

His mother had made it clear that she would not tolerate two things in her household: cripples and Negroes. Seeing as he had become a cripple at a Negro club, he figured that he was out of a place to live and a job. The irony of the situation is not lost on him. All he had wanted was to see the girl of his dreams and finally gather the courage to ask her out and now he was unsure if she was even alive. Wait. Was she? He hadn't heard the two men mention her. As his breathing began to stabilize, he calmed down enough to question the doctor about her whereabouts.

"Um, excuse me sir, but would you happen to know what happened to a woman by the name of Katniss Everdeen? She was at the Hob that night." The other man, Haymitch, stepped back into the room.

"Well, boy, that's exactly what I need to ask you about. I'm Peacekeeper Abernanthy, part of the detective division and I have a few questions to ask you." The man was condescending and grated on Peeta's nerves. He was already dealing with a lot and this man showed not one ounce of sympathy.

"Do you know a woman by the name of Katniss Everdeen?" Despite himself, Peeta scoffed. Of course he knew a woman by the name of Katniss Everdeen, he had just asked after her, hadn't he? It reaffirmed the well-known stereotype that all Peacekeeper's were idiots. Still, Peeta's breath caught in his throat. She couldn't be dead. He'd know it if she were; his heart, he was sure, would stop beating the second hers did. He'd feel it in his soul.

"Yes, why do you ask?" The detective's expression was triumphant.

"Well, sweetheart, your girl is in District 12 County Jail for the murders of Cato Snow and Marvel Price. And, once the doctors clear you, you'll be joining her."

And that's when Peeta realized, quite belatedly, that his wrist was handcuffed to the railing of the hospital bed.

_What?_

**A/N: Ok, so yeah, this chapter probably really sucks. Sorry for the wait, I've been a little stressed and busy which is probably reflected in the crappiness that is this chapter *sigh*. Anywho, thank you to everyone who reviewed. Your kind words helped me through writing this chapter and I promise the next one will be so much better. Hopefully they'll start getting longer too (I've always struggled with writing long stories, I pretty much suck at it )**

**Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long but we shall see **

**Also, what do you think about Haymitch being a Peacekeeper? Interesting, right?**


End file.
